After 45-minute chase, St. Paul officers get their...sheep

Animal control got several calls during a 20-minute span the morning of Dec. 13 about a sheep on the lam south of the Mississippi River, said Bill Stephenson, St. Paul animal control supervisor. Officers began searching for the sheep at 10 River Park Plaza.

"We were wandering all over the place looking for this sheep, continuing to get calls," Stephenson said. "We finally spotted this thing, and the chase was on."

The sheep continued to elude officers south of the river. After about 45 minutes, officers used a rope to catch the sheep under the Lafayette Bridge, Stephenson said.

"We are not sheep experts, that's for sure," he said.

Animal control has acquired pigs, goats, snakes and exotic birds over the years. This is the first sheep for Stephenson, he said.

For the past week, the sheep has been housed in a stall at animal control. It makes a bed out of hay and then eats it every morning, Stephenson said. When a dog walks past the stall where the sheep is housed, it stomps its foot.

The sheep had a South Dakota tag on its ear, Stephenson said. It's unclear where the sheep was headed or how it came to be wandering the streets of St. Paul.

The sheep is moving on to greener pastures today. A hooved-animal rescuer is scheduled to pick up the sheep because no one claimed it, Stephenson said.